The gifted and rebellious writer Claude McKay grew up in the BritishWest Indies and then moved to the United States. As he traveled fromJamaica to South Carolina to Harlem, then to Europe and Africa, heembraced various causes and political ideologies that made their wayinto his prose and poetry. As a black in a British colony, he had beenconfined to British culture and identity. In the United States he foundracial oppression. His struggle for self-definition and self-determinationwas manifest in his writings and laid the foundation for the HarlemRenaissance and negritude movements. This study explores the lifeand works of Claude McKay, framed within his cross-culturalexperiences.